Summer Soap (Episode 7): Ah, this is why Cork folk shun umbrellas!

If the Mondays were going to be long, at least she had a break on Tuesdays. Natalie didn’t have class until the afternoon, so she decided to use her morning to look for a raincoat.

She’d checked the weather before going to bed the night before, and while the forecast called for rain, there should’ve been an hour or so of dry weather in the morning. A full hour, she’d swear on it.

In actuality, there had been a constant ‘shower’ since the night before, when a clap of thunder had woken Natalie at precisely 2:13 in the morning.

After waiting for two whole hours, she’d given up hope of staying dry that day. Instead, Natalie waited for a lull in the rainfall before grabbing her umbrella and running out the door.

Oddly enough, there weren’t that many people walking about, even if it was ten o’clock in the morning. Even the people she did see were wrapped tightly in raincoats, and it occurred to Natalie that she hadn’t actually seen many people using umbrellas since she’d come to Cork, if she’d seen any at all. Were they out of fashion?

She shrugged and continued on, even if they were less popular, they still worked as well as a rain-jacket.

The rain had gotten heavier, and Natalie shifted her umbrella’s angle so it’d catch more rain. It was easier said than done, since doing so meant holding it against the rain.

In a matter of minutes, her arms were becoming sore just from the effort required to keep the umbrella pointed in the same direction. She’d held no illusions of the umbrella keeping all of her dry, she’d expected the cuffs of her jeans to become damp at least. What she didn’t expect was for the umbrella to make her day worse.

That morning, Natalie was given a brutal lesson explaining precisely why “May the wind be always at your back” was an Irish blessing specifically. The reason so few passers-by bothered with an umbrella was because they offered so little recourse against the rain when the wind carried it at such a harsh angle.

Natalie had put a valiant effort into keeping her feet under her, all while maintaining an iron grip on her umbrella’s handle, but the storm wouldn’t be outdone so easily. The moment she stepped onto the corner of Washington Street and South Main Street, a northward gust yanked on her umbrella so hard the ribs flipped over.

Natalie looked at her upended umbrella in disbelief, she’d never seen such a thing happen before. What was she supposed to do now? This cursed thing was shaping up to be one of the biggest regrets of her life.

At this point, she was well and truly convinced there was no point in carrying the umbrella any further, but given the state of things she couldn’t close it either. Should she try to stuff it in the bin?

The wind yanked on the umbrella again, tugging Natalie back a step. This was ridiculous. If she didn’t decide soon, she’d lose her grip on the darned thing and with her luck it’d hit some poor bystander.

It took some determination, but she managed to pop the umbrella back into its original shape by pressing the freshly concave canopy against the ground and pushing firmly. Even if it was restored, Natalie’s faith in it wasn’t, so she decided to bear with the rain as she continued on her way, feeling more like a cautionary children’s cartoon character than a college student.

She made it down another block before it became clear she needed a new plan. She ducked into Grumpy Bakers so she could mull over her options over a croissant.

Her original intent had been to shop around a bit before settling on a raincoat, but now that her jeans and sweater were absolutely soaked through, Natalie just wanted to get back to her apartment as soon as possible. It seemed there were a few contenders nearby.

She had to admit in her current circumstances Superdry sounded appealing, but ultimately the Outdoor Adventure Store won through sheer proximity.

Still, she spent far longer than she needed to deliberating between the two stores out of sheer procrastination. When her mocha had gone cold and she couldn’t justify lingering any longer, she pushed her way back into the storm and ran as fast as she could to the store, barely waiting for the light to turn.

The shopkeeper had been very attentive, or perhaps just pitied her sorry state as she sloshed into the shop. Natalie felt a little guilty for tracking so much water onto the clean floors, so she didn’t put much time into examining the selection too closely.

She left the store satisfied with a thick raincoat in a shade of light blue she was quite fond of. There didn’t seem like there was much of a point to wearing a raincoat when she was already wet from head to toe, but Natalie decided to wear it out anyway.

It was a quarter till noon by the time she made it out of the shop, so she decided to run home. She needed to make it home quickly if she wanted enough time to shower, change, and mop the floors behind her before heading to class on time.

You can begin the series on the link below.